Fall is approaching, and the program year begins again at Saint James, so we welcome back the Sunday School and the Choir, along with the many members of our church family who have been away for all or part of the summer. But for most Episcopalians, autumn also means the coming of something that many of us anticipate with antipathy or even dread: the annual Stewardship Campaign.
We’re not ready to kick our campaign off yet (we still need some more volunteers to help steer it), but before we begin, I thought it might be worth reflecting on how Christians have supported
their communities and mission in earlier times.
The disciples, as we know from the Book of Acts, built small communities of followers of Jesus spreading out from Jerusalem, and scripture tells us that these communities pooled their resources and held all of their property in common, with the community leaders distributing money from the common purse to feed the community and provide for the poor, the widows and the orphans.
They lived, we are told, in harmony and joy, and everyone had enough. This Utopian community, though, didn’t last all that long. In Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, he chastises wealthier members of the community for refusing to share their food with poorer members when they gather on Sundays, and in Acts we are told of members stealing from the common treasury.
In the Fourth Century when Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, church and empire became closely tied together, and church communities grew in size and number, and began to worship in purpose-built buildings. These churches not only enjoyed imperial support, they were able to own income-producing properties and, in some cases, levy taxes on the parish that the church served. Alms were collected from the community for the poor, but churches and their clergy, as well as monasteries, were largely supported by the land they owned and in kind gifts of meat and produce from members of the congregation and from pilgrims for churches that were lucky enough to attract them.
This was generally how churches were supported until the later part of the Middle Ages in Europe, and in the East for far longer. But in the Western Church, as the secular world became more prosperous, things began to change. The main thing that changed, and this happened over a long period of time and for a lot of reasons, is that people stopped receiving Communion. They still went to church, often for hours at a time and sometimes several times a day, but instead of receiving Communion, they just gazed at the consecrated bread and wine, and made a spiritual practice out of doing so. But most would only eat the bread once a year, at Easter, and before that they had to make a confession and perform acts of penance, and those acts of penance often involved making money gifts to the church.
As the power, domain, and responsibilities of the church grew, the church began to encourage people to give money for what were called votive masses: requiems and other dedicated services intended to speed the arrival of ancestors into heaven and to seek special favors from God. The church also began to sell what were called indulgences – “get out of jail free cards” to exempt the purchaser from the consequences of certain kinds of sins.
This was the primary source of funds for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, but it was also one of the practices that led people who objected to it to start the challenges to the church that came to be known as the Reformation.
After the Reformation, the Church of England, ancestor of the Episcopal Church, continued to fund congregations through income-producing lands, although often those incomes went to a Rector who didn’t actually serve in any church (these positions were called “sinecures”), while the Vicar who actually served the parish had to rely on a modest stipend from the Rector, plus offerings from the congregation. Churches that didn’t have lands were supported through taxation, and eventually the Church of England’s parishes lost their lands (called “glebes”) and even to this day are funded by a combination of congregational giving and government support.
When the British came to America, they brought with them the land-based system of church sup-port, but because of the complete lack of bishops and consequent shortage of priests, very few congregations outside of urban areas had Rectors to receive and manage land incomes. The “circuit rider” priests who served multiple rural parishes received their income from the plate offering on the Sundays they served, and their income was very dependent on the power of their preaching. It is for this reason that clergy are still defined in the US tax code as self-employed, whether or not they have a permanent salaried position.
During that time, the expenses of the parish – building maintenance, mission support, programs, and outreach – were paid for by endowment income and pew rentals. Every congregation still has people who think of a particular seat in church as “their” pew, but in those days it was true. Pews were assigned by wealth and seniority, and families who paid an annual rent would install amenities in their pews like charcoal stoves for heat. Visitors, servants and soldiers would have to sit in the gallery. Some old churches still have their antique box pews with historic family names on the outside, but these days Episcopal Churches are funded by donations from members unrelated to seat, rank or privilege. Most churches call this giving “pledging,” and ask members of the congregation to make a commitment about giving each year so that the leaders of the church can make responsible decisions about the budget based on expected income. Churches have pledge drives, usually in the fall, and try to get every member or family to make a prayerful decision about what they can commit to. One church near to us doesn’t ask for pledges, but has members make “giving plans,” with the idea that a plan is easier to revise, upward or downward according to changed circumstances, than a pledge.
Our campaign hasn’t started yet, but it’s not too soon to think prayerfully about what God is hoping you will do with the treasures of time and skill and money with which you have been blessed. I hope you will make a giving plan, not just for the church, but also for the other needs of the world that may have touched your heart, and that wherever you invest your treasure, you will spread it generously, as God is generous with you.
Bill+